Oath rebrands to Verizon Media: What does this entail?

This post is sponsored by Verizon Media.

Oath made news headlines recently for revamping its name to Verizon Media. Speaking to Marketing, Rico Chan, managing director of Verizon Media Hong Kong, Japan and INSEA, shared what the new rebranding really stands for and what the industry can expect from Verizon Media in the coming months in the region.

Verizon Media has replaced the Oath brand. Why the rebranding and what does it mean for customers and stakeholders?

There’s a larger context here. Verizon recently streamlined the organisation into three business units: Verizon Consumer, Verizon Business and Verizon Media. This marks a shift in focus from a telecommunications to an expanded technology company.

Coming to Verizon Media, we will be strongly aligned, and as you can see from the new structure, a core pillar of Verizon’s business. We will have the same shared purpose, goals and vision as Verizon, a Fortune 20 company.

As part of one Verizon, one of the largest communication technology companies in the world, we will be able to grow our work on tomorrow’s technologies – XR, AI, machine-learning, 5G, and more. We believe this will open up exciting opportunities ahead to build what’s next in media, advertising and technology.

Our popular consumer brands will remain the way our users love them. Yahoo News, Finance and Yahoo TV will continue to deliver the news, stories and experiences our users love, helping people communicate, stay informed and entertained.

Our commitment to marketers and publishers remains similarly unchanged. We are building on the strong foundation of our unified ad platforms, and adding new features that make it easier for advertisers and publishers to solve their business challenges. We will continue working with our clients to create customised solutions that are tailor-made to meet their goals.

Will Singapore be a key market for Verizon Media?

We are committed to consumers here, who rely on us for content they can trust, whether on Yahoo News or Finance. As we create what’s next in content and advertising, we will look at how to engage consumers in Singapore in a way that is relevant to their lives. To provide the products and services our consumers here want and need every day. Or as we are seeing, the content that brings them back every day such as their favourite shows or live-streamed events on Yahoo TV.

Are there any new launches planned?

We want to go deep on our core offerings, reimagining how we engage consumers, and work with advertisers and publishers. Our new offerings will reflect what our users want more of.

Yahoo TV has been an exciting addition to our portfolio in Singapore, with the kind of content users love – from original programming to live-streaming the hottest events such as the e-game tournament at the Asia Game Festival.

Yahoo TV is bringing two new lifestyle video series – Can You Hear What Auntie is Cooking, showcasing local favourites such as Sup Kambing and Rojak, and Feng Shui Mythbusting. Our new series Singlish With Uncle Gwee is already popular, shared extensively by users on social media.

With this, we will be able to reimagine how we serve advertisers in the region through innovative, impactful storytelling experiences and solutions.

What are Verizon Media’s focus areas or big bets in Singapore for 2019?

You’ll see a continued focus on mobile, video and innovation, powered by cutting-edge technologies. Yahoo TV is opening up new opportunities to engage and connect with consumers. We will be innovating with original programming and offering live-streaming events that our consumers want, wrapped in a seamless experience.

For advertisers, we want to enable path-breaking storytelling, matching this with“story-hearing” capabilities. Whether through native advertising or content marketing, in 2019 we will be looking to disrupt how advertisers leverage technology to create stories that engage the right consumers at an unprecedented scale.

By building new features into our unified ad platforms, we will continue making it easier for marketers and publishers to use the best of Verizon Media’s ad tech, data, inventory and ad experiences.

Verizon recently expanded its partnership with Microsoft. What does this entail?

This multi-year global native advertising deal comes on the heels of a strong year of native advertising growth for Verizon Media. We closed 2018 with double-digit growth in native advertising YoY. We seeing that brands recognise how effective this format can be.

Through this expanded partnership with Microsoft, marketers will gain additional access to 20%  more native inventory through Oath Ad Platforms, with high-performing ad formats on Microsoft News/MSN. That’s native ads on every page of Microsoft News/MSN in more than 30 countries around the world.

Marketers can select exclusive placements they can’t buy anywhere else. The partnership enables us to bring together this premium inventory with our ad tech, quality content and the most diverse verified data in the industry to connect marketers with their key audiences at scale.

The writer is Rico Chan, managing director, Verizon Media Hong Kong, Japan and INSEA.